To acknowledge the value of time is perhaps the first step to not only the make the best use of it not only while performing but also to understand the important of “timing” in decision making. Time is an essential resource for both individuals and organizations but unlike other resources, time “is running” since it can’t be neither stopped nor encapsulated, and it is limited within and between days since both individuals and organizations are faced with a “deadline”. Since the Greeks, at least in western culture, the importance of time was well-known not only on performance but also in decision making. They developed two very powerful and useful concepts to think about time “Chronos” and “Kairos”, where the former is the chronological sense of time while the later sees time as an “opportunity”. In our times, the metaphor “Time is Money” summarize its value, but do organizations and individuals use time according to this? And moreover, which is the leadership role today?
Building Capacity – Best Time Use and Performance Consistency
“Times goes by” it is the best way to summarize time from a performance perspective. People, Process and Technology will determine the capacity of each shift and day whether in a Plant or an Office. When People is the main “throughput” driver, it would be very useful to perform an assessment of the “Touch time” by using simple DILOs (“Day In Life Of”) or some automated time measurement system. Whenever Technology is the main “throughput” driver, the use of “Overall Equipment Effectiveness” (OEE) as a KPI, can provide with insights of capacity use by taking into consideration Availability, Performance and Quality. Once capacity use’s bottom line is established, then it is important to identify “bottlenecks” and “drivers” to empower the team not only to improve but also to achieve consistency in time management. It is through leadership that leaders empower and coach their teams to ensure consistency in process capacity and in time management.
Best Capacity Use – Customer Centricity and Continuous Working “Flow”
“The right time” can synthetize the first aspect of time to be consider in decision making. Although prioritization can take different forms, always a criterion will be underlaying the decision about what to do first. The planning is a fact-based way for an organization to demonstrate customer centricity. Once the organization is doing what is “right” for the customer, the “pace” is the second time aspect to include in the decision-making. “The right pace” might vary not only because of the external demand but also the internal capacity which needs to be both known and consistent. In this case, “Built To Schedule” (BTS) as KPI, can provide insights about not only planning but also compliance by compiling Volume, Mix and Sequence. In an Office environment, the MILO (Month In Life Of) can help the leaders to perform an assessment of the “Leadtime” with a deep dive on planning, compliance and risks associated. The leader manages process capacity to centre on customers’ needs and to create a continuous “working” flow avoiding peaks and disruptions.
Leadership in Time Management and Delivery Performance
To have the best and more consistent time management, team members should be empowered, therefore it is important for leaders to understand that to delegate is a necessary to empower but not enough for itself. For example, unless properly escalated and finally solved, recurrence in Technology issues can completely disempower the team. Thus “empowerment” is a continuous process performed by leaders to help the team to cope with restrictions in order to ensure consistency in process capacity. The leader will make the best use of that capacity by centring on customers’ needs and creating a working flow to develop and sustain a new way of working. Leaders’ role begins by empowering the team through leadership to engage them to take accountability for time management and ensuring consistency in capacity. Then, leaders are responsible for making the best possible use of processes capacity by centring on customers and ensuring the “right pace” at each time to meet customers’ demands with teams’ available capacity. It is by acknowledging the different time perspectives and which skills are required to build capacity and make the best use of it, that effective leadership is deployed, and organizational goals accomplished.
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